Did ‘Legion’ Just Casually Mention The Shi’ar???

Season 1 of FX’s Legion was packed with wall-to-wall information about its potentially insane protagonist David Haller (Dan Stevens). But Season 2 has been casually dropping info about the X-Men adjacent world the show inhabits left and right, including one enormous name-drop we totally missed in “Chapter 10“: The Shi’ar.

Not to be confused with a Hobbit’s home in the Shire, the Shi’ar are one of the most legendary alien races in Marvel Comics. They’re usually intrinsically tied with X-Men continuity. In fact, the warlike, avian race’s Queen (called a Magestrix) is one of the love interests of Professor Xavier. You may remember him as the father of David Haller?

On the last episode of Legion, Cary (Bill Irwin) was studying the orb that captured David at the end of Season 1. He briefly noted that he thought it was from the Shi’ar, then realized it was more like something he would design. As we speculated on our Legion podcast, he probably did design it — just not yet in the show’s timeline.

But let’s get back to that Shi’ar thing. Cary mentioning them means that at the very least he, and most likely Division 3 (the taskforce he works for) knows about the alien race. The show hasn’t really established a timeline, though there’s theories it’s taking place at the same time or right after X-Men: First Class… Theories I would argue don’t matter, because this is probably an alternate universe. The movies — at some point — are going to see the X-Men head to space and mix it up with the Shi’ar in X-Men: Dark Phoenix; but assuming this is another universe, that doesn’t need to match up.

Instead, if you look at the comics it makes a certain amount of sense. Professor X has already battled the Shadow King, the Shi’ar have encountered mutants… Most of the X-Men continuity is happening in the past here. So we probably won’t see a Phoenix show up, nor should we expect aliens to invade quite yet. Most likely it was an Easter egg for fans.

But maybe not? Perhaps the devastation teased by Future-Syd (Rachel Keller) last episode is caused by the Shi’ar? Stranger things have happened… And on Legion, they often do.

Here’s the official description of the show from FX:

Legion follows the story of “David Haller,” a man who believed he was schizophrenic but discovered he might be the most powerful mutant in the world. With help from a team of specialists, David harnessed his unique abilities and learned he’d been haunted by a malicious parasite. Now, David is all that stands in the way of “Amahl Farouk” from attaining infinite and world-ending power.

And be sure to subscribe to our Legion podcast for recaps as soon each episode is done airing!